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Saturday, September 2, 2017

Aahaa Stores, one of the fastest growing online office supplies
platform, today announced that it has raised the second round of pre-series A
funding from investor group led by YourNest Angel Fund, an early stage investor
in technology, ecommerce and consumer centric businesses. The company had raised
first round funding of equal amount around eighteen months ago. The company had
grown multifold since then in terms of Product portfolio, customer base,
geographical presence and sales turnover. Two of the existing investors
including YourNest have participated in this round as well at a substantially
higher valuation as compared to their earlier investments. This reaffirms the
investors’ faith in Aahaa Stores. In addition to them, a new investor with a
strong equity financing background has picked up 50% equity of the fresh
capital.

The company plans to utilize the funds for expanding the business
across new verticals and geographies. Aahaa Stores also announced its intent to
realize their long-term vision by strengthening its technology platform iPOS,
mobilizing top talent and reaching out to new customers across verticals via
the funds received.

Asokan Sattanathan, Founder and Chairman, Aahaa Stores, said “The second round of pre-series A funding
from YourNest and other marquee investors is a strategic step towards building
and enhancing further on technology, talent, infrastructure, brand and
innovative customer-centric business models. With our unique solution providing
capabilities in the indirect office supplies space, we are well-poised to reach Rs 100 crores run rate and attain breakeven volumes by the end of this
financial year. Within a short span of time, we have been able to create a
niche platform for online office supplies segment which reiterates our
confidence that we will soon emerge as a leader in the online office
supplies space.”

Commenting on this development, Sunil K Goyal, Managing
Director and Fund Manager, Yournest, said “Aahaa stores has won the trust of the finest
enterprise customers in segments including BFSI, Manufacturing and IT, in a
short period of time. Winning customer confidence in this competitive market
opens further doors for immense growth in meeting the needs of intelligent
procurement. aahaa team has the leadership depth and the domain knowledge to excel
and grow as a B2B market place."

Launched in 2013, Aahaa has hugely benefitted the BFSI and IT
sectors by managing their daily need of essential indirect supplies efficiently
and effectively at 4000+ branches across the country. Aahaa has helped many
corporates of repute rejig their brand through mobilizing rich and attractive
merchandise in their Brand Stores and taking end to end responsibility from
sourcing to last mile delivery. Aahaa is immensely popular for streamlining
purchase to pay processes in the otherwise competitive manufacturing sector
when it comes to tail spends.

The University of
Chicago’s International Innovation Corps (IIC) organized a three-day conference
at their center in Delhi. The event featured panel discussions on creating
participatory spaces in public policy, innovations in development finance,
filling data gaps and fuelling data governance. The emerging theme from the
deliberations was the role of public private partnerships in scaling and
accelerating social development initiatives and creating an ecosystem which
would help enable this.

Stalwarts from the
NITI Aayog, the Rajasthan Education Department, organizations such as Michael
and Susan Dell Foundation, Dasra, Villgro India, SEWA, Centre for Urban
and Regional Excellence, IDInsight, Data{Meet}, SocialCops, X Billion Labs,
Saajha, Aranya Agricultural Alternatives came together to discuss their
learnings and observations on the need to involve communities in the creation
and delivery of policy initiatives; the significance of participation of
private funding, philanthropic giving and impact investing to accelerate the
development process; and overcoming gaps in data collection, management and
analytics.

A keynote lecture by Naresh Pal Gangwar, Secretary of
Education, Government of Rajasthan, on systemic transformations in education,
was also able to bring these different themes together. The Secretary’s
lecture highlighted how Rajasthan’s School Education Department has been able
to combine data systems, community engagement, and partnerships with NGOs and
foundations, to bring about large-scale change in education governance. While
learning outcomes will take many years to improve, putting in place the right
governance structures is a critical first step.

Panel discussions
highlighted that lack of ownership is a challenge when it comes to scaling
social initiatives. Creating communitarian organizations with participation
from all sectors could help build holistic programs and address challenges with
existing initiatives. Information sharing and building capacity at the official
level, as well as community level, would help accelerate this.

Prachi Jain Windlass,
India Education Director, Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, shared “When
it comes to achieving scale and making social development initiatives
sustainable, it cannot be achieved in isolation by education technology
companies, or NGOs. Working closely with the government and facilitating
community involvement is what will make these initiatives a success.”

IIC’s education
programs in Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh are helping build formal and
informal channels to encourage community participation, designing tools to
collect data at the village level, and building capacity to scale such
interventions, by ensuring that local governance structures in each state are
kept in mind and proper feedback mechanisms are developed. All of this is being
enabled through collaborations with state governments.

Throwing light on the
recently launched Gyan Sankalp Education Funding Portal designed by the
Government of Rajasthan and the IIC, Tullika Saini, Deputy Commissioner,
Department of Education, Rajasthan shared “There is a 5000+crore
infrastructure financing gap in Rajasthan schools. A larger vision is required
to connect potential funders with on-ground projects which have been identified
after careful observation of needs of people on the ground, which the Gyan
Sankalp portal aims at enabling. There is an opportunity for every organization
to be a part of education initiatives in the country and the portal is a tool
to connect the two.”

Avik Sarkar, Incharge,
Data Analytics Cell, Energy Modeling Unit, NITI Aayog, who engaged with an IIC
team to work on data systems, said “Gaps in data analysis and effective
utilization of data, to implement impactful initiatives, exist because of lack
of digitization of data. Data needs to be seen as a tool that empowers people
and proper governance mechanisms need to be put in place to collect and
digitize relevant data. Partnerships with private organizations for capacity
building to impart necessary skills to accelerate digitization of data can help
take this forward.”

Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in
cybersecurity solutions had their global executive Kevin Simzer, EVP,
Sales & Marketing in India recently, stressing on how APAC tends
to be a lead adopter around next generation projects focused on Cloud, Virtualization
and Container related technologies. In a total addressable market size of $15
billion, he opined that IOT is here to stay for the next decade, and Hybrid
Cloud security was seen as one of the strongest growth areas in India and
around the APAC region. Another area which is increasingly come into the fore
is SOC (Security Operations Centre), and what customers are doing from an
incident response standpoint.

“India market in particular is very technology savvy. We are going
to take big initiatives largely driven in India partnering with big system
integrators (SI’s) who happen to be champions. We want to be part of the next
wave of opportunity by investing in companies, through our $100 million VC arm
on IOT and next generation landscape of applications that are there. We are
very excited about developments around Blockchain, IOT, and other applications
that might shake the future,” said Kevin.

On the sidelines of the upcoming CLOUDSEC event in India, he
further added, “Hybrid Cloud would be the hottest of the hot topics of
discussion during this years’ industry-wide consortium, with Ransomware too
being one of the other hot topics. I think the event will allow the
participants to get a good view of the world, and of what security ecosystem looks
like.”

From a growth perspective, both globally and in APAC region, all
three of Trend Micro’s major solution areas are witnessing significant growth:
Endpoint, Hybrid Cloud security and Network. 50% of the business comes from
Endpoint, and that is growing in mid- single digit. Hybrid Cloud security
offering is growing at 45% plus, a quarter of their business; and the Network
defense that forms quarter of our business is growing at 25%.

“India is completely a true reflection of what is happening globally.
Today, the most interesting part in India is Azure and AWS, both of which have
made significant investments in India. We have a dedicated team to address
Azure and AWS business. Our focus is to be present whenever customers are
opting for Azure and AWS”, said Nilesh Jain, Country Manager (India
& SAARC), Trend Micro.

To cater to the massive shortage of skills, and cyber security
professionals in the industry, with reports suggesting 1 million cyber security
positions open across the globe; Trend Micro has also setup a cybersecurity
training centre in Cairo, Egypt with plans to introduce in Brazil, Canada
including India.

For the first time in
India, an independent equity research firm and a broking house have come
together to give a world class research information to investors.

5Paisa.com, the discount
broking arm of IIFL, is going to integrate MarketSmith India in their app to
give access to an independent and world class research to its customers. This
will benefit the customers of 5Paisa.com in a big way from next week as they
will now get access to all the research content of MarketSmith India, helping
them to take informed investment decisions.

'It is indeed going to
be a first of its kind of integration and tie-up. As of now, none of the
discount broking houses are offering research in any form to their customers,
and 5Paisa.com will lead the way by giving world class research to its
customers', says Anupam Singhi, CEO, MarketSmith India (part of William O'Neil
India).

The tie-up is an
extension of its customer acquisition exercise for MarketSmith India to help
people take informed trading / investment decisions at a very affordable price.
With an aim to make larger investor community in India about William O Neil's
empirical research of growth investing, 5Paisa.com will bring in their
customers and its deep geographical reach to MSI's customer acquisition
activity. In near future, MarketSmith India's customers might directly be able
to place their trades on MSI's research using 5Paisa.com's trading platform.

"We are happy to
associate with MarketSmith India as we believe that our customers will greatly
benefit from the world class research that will be offered by MarketSmith
India," said Prakarsh Gagdani, CEO, 5Paisa.com.

Benefitting from the
tie-up, 5Paisa.com customers will get access to world class independent
research which has proven its merits in different market conditions across
different geographies across the world. 5Paisa.com customers will have to pay
Rs 12499 per annum (less 10% inaugural discount) to access the premium features
of MarketSmith India. However, each and every customer of 5Paisa.com will have
access to Free Content of MSI without paying any subscription fees.

Godrej Appliances, one of
India’s leading players in the Home Appliances industry, has unveiled its range
of front load fully automatic washing machines under its sub brand Godrej Eon.

This range of machines comes equipped with a new feature
called Allergy Protect, a superior wash programme, certified by
Allergy UK that is effective in getting rid of seven common allergens and
bacteria. Allergy Protect focuses not only on removing visible stains from
clothes but also invisible allergens and bacteria allowing for a truly pristine
wash. It also consumes less energy and water as it features another
ground-breaking innovation - Eco-Balance technology, which
optimizes water and electricity consumption depending on the size of the load.

The new range of washing machines is designed with various other
distinctive in-built features that together redefine the concept of cleaning.
It has 15 unique wash programmes to cater to the diverse laundry needs of the
consumers, an anti-crease function to ease ironing and a rapid 15-minute wash
programme that offers a short and convenient solution for less soiled clothes.
It also packs a powerful wash with 3 levels of stain selection and foam
protection system for better detergent removal.

Godrej’s new front load washing machines places convenience at
the heart of its human-centric design philosophy, making them easy-to-use
whilst also standing out from the competition.

Sanjeev Jain, National Sales Head - Godrej Appliances, said, “We have always been at the forefront
when it comes to providing differentiated solutions in washing machines. We
were the first to introduce toughened glass lids, colour options in washing
machines, steel drum in semi-automatic washing machines, water and power
sensing DAC technology and ultra-sonic wash technology. With our new
technologies, Allergy Protect and Eco Balance in our front load washing
machines, we have raised the bar on innovation even higher. We are already
among the fastest growing brands in the washing machine category and with this
new range, we intend to consolidate our position in the category.”

Rakesh Sial, Product Group Head - Godrej Appliances, said, “Prevalence of bacteria and
allergens in clothes can lead to severe skin diseases especially amongst kids
as they are more prone to infections. For a thorough wash, we need to focus on
the visible as well as the non-visible contaminations on the clothes.
Furthermore, water conservation has become a global need. Hence to combat these
critical issues while focusing on the health of the consumers, we have enhanced
our washing machine range with our foray into the front load fully automatic
category. Godrej Eon Front load washing machine promises to make washing
clothes a delightful and healthy experience and provide complete convenience to
the consumers.”

The new range is available in capacities of 7Kg and 6Kg. It will
be priced at between Rs 27,000-Rs 34,500.

Thursday, August 31, 2017

Aeries Financial Technologies Pvt. Ltd., a fin-tech company
promoted by serial entrepreneur and private equity investor Mr. V. Raman Kumar,
today announced that CASHe, India’s fastest loan-giving app for young salaried
professionals, has entered a strategic partnership with Paisabazaar.com,
India’s No. 1 in loans & credit cards marketplace, to offer short-term
personal loans to consumers who otherwise get rejected from traditional lending
institutions. Paisabazaar.com will now feature a new category under short-term
loans which will exclusively feature CASHe’s loan products. This tie-up will
enable CASHe to reach out to a sizable online customer base of Paisabazaar.com.

Speaking about the partnership, V. Raman Kumar, Chairman,
Aeries Financial Technologies said, “Paisabazaar is the market place
leader in online financial products and has a loyal and growing customer base
across India. By Introducing CASHe’s app-based short-term loan products on its
platform, we look forward to leveraging the platform’s wide distribution
network and its strong customer portfolio, especially in the short-term lending
space. We are confident that this partnership will create a win-win situation
for those customers who would have never qualified for any loan from traditional
lending institutions. They will now have access to CASHe’s short-term loan
products on a single platform. I am truly thrilled by this partnership,” he
added

Paisabazaar.com and CASHe are
together targeting to disburse 35,000 loans by the end of 2017. Paisabazaar.com in 2016-17 was the only online financial player
to disburse loans worth Rs 2500 crore. By the end of this financial year, it
aims to hit an annualized disbursal of Rs 6000 crore.

Commenting on the
collaboration, Naveen
Kukreja, CEO & Co-founder, Paisabazaar.com said, “As a market leader
in the lending space, we get customers from across the spectrum on our platform
- HNIs, entrepreneurs, young salaried professionals, low income profiles etc.
These customers have varied credit profiles, with credit scores ranging from
‘Excellent’ to ‘Poor’. In line with this, we are delighted to partner with
CASHe to help improve access to credit for young salaried professionals with
below par credit scores. Not only is it a great platform to access credit for
short term, it’s also an excellent medium for consumers to behave responsibly
on this loan and build their credit profile. We look forward to providing
credit to thousands of customers over the next few months through this
partnership.”

CASHe provides hassle-free loans with its app enabled
documentation and loan disbursal/repayment process. Powered by its
industry-first algorithm driven credit scoring platform, The Social Loan
Quotient (SLQ), CASHe quickly determines a user’s credit worthiness by using
multiple unique data points to arrive at a distinct credit profile of the
customer. SLQ is transforming the traditional credit rating measurements
thereby providing immediate loans to the under-served young professionals who
are kept out by traditional credit rating and banking systems. CASHe is
completely automated and requires no personal intervention and no physical
documentation. The average time taken for a loan to be disbursed is about 8
minutes, subject to proper submission of all documents.

In line with its vision to transform the way
India buys & sells, Amazon India signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
with the Karnataka Biotechnology and Information Technology Services (KBITS) at
‘ELEVATE100’ event held today in Bangalore. As part of the alliance, Amazon
India will work with KBITS to educate, train & enable select start-ups to sell
their products to Amazon customers across the country under its Launchpad
program. Amazon Launchpad, the company’s flagship program dedicated to promote
innovative products backed by technological excellence, makes it easy for
Indian startups to launch, market, and distribute their products to millions of
Amazon customers across India and around the world through a dedicated store.

The
Government of Karnataka has operationalized a dedicated ‘Karnataka Startup
Cell’ as a one-stop shop to provide assistance to startups with respect to
information on regulatory environment, networking with industry bodies and
academic institutions. The Start-up Cell, operated by KBITS, provides the
‘Startup Karnataka Booster Kit’ – a collection of software tools and services provided
by a ‘Booster Kit Service Provider’ which enables start-ups to avail enhanced
marketing support and showcase their innovative products to the customers.

As
part of this alliance, Amazon Launchpad as a ‘Booster Kit Service Provider’,
shall provide a dedicated storefront on www.amazon.in and other services to all
the shortlisted product start-ups including periodic support and services in
improving their presence on the marketplace, generating demand for their
products, and guiding them towards sustainable business growth under the
program. KBITS will share a database of product start-ups registered with
the Karnataka Start-up Cell with the Launchpad team on a monthly and quarterly
basis to help start-ups leverage Amazon’s world-class e-commerce expertise,
global infrastructure, and powerful marketing tools to help them deliver their
products to millions of Amazon customers.

Sharing
his views on the MoU, Priyank Kharge, Minister for IT, BT and Tourism,
Government of Karnataka said “We are extremely glad to partner
with Amazon India for providing a platform for start-ups to enter the booming
space of e-commerce. With their rich experience and deep understanding of
consumers, Amazon Launchpad program can really make a difference in
facilitating these talented start-ups take advantage of the growing digital
economy and e-commerce. This initiative will help the start-ups in showcasing
their product which will be available to the massive Amazon customer base
across the country. We expect Amazon’s Launchpad program to greatly boost
the morale of young entrepreneurs and make them successful.”

Manish
Tiwary, Vice-President, Category Management, Amazon India, added, “Amazon Launchpad is an exceptional
opportunity for Indian Startups to get access to a nationwide customer base.
Through this program individual entrepreneurs, innovators and creators from
across Karnataka can leverage the Amazon marketplace to increase the scale of
their business and even get easy access to global markets. We are excited to
partner with the Government of Karnataka to encourage innovation from the
Indian start-up community and guide start-ups towards sustainable business
growth”.

In
the past, Amazon Launchpad has tied up with various partners operating in the
ecosystem, such as DIPP’s Start Up India initiative to offer Startups a
streamlined on-boarding experience, access to custom product pages with unique
content, marketing support to aid product discovery, and access to Amazon’s
customer base & fulfilment network, all geared toward helping Startups
scale up their businesses and successfully launch their innovative products.

Under
this program, Amazon offers services of inventory management, order fulfilment,
customer service and more for start-ups, allowing them to focus their efforts
on the innovation that results in more products that customers will love.
Startups that have developed a unique and innovative consumer products qualify
for Amazon Launchpad. The products have to be from a category Amazon.in
currently operates in (except for books & media) and they should be ready
for shipping on the day of the application, or the following 30 days.

Kings Learning, a technology-driven
spoken English learning startup, has raised US$ 2.5 million in funding from
Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, together with other US based tech
investors. The organization aims to address the employability issue in India
amongst underserved youth owing to poor English language and communication
skills, through offline, online and blended delivery channels.

Enguru, Kings Learning’s mobile-based spoken English app, allows
users to self-learn both general spoken English and employability-focused
conversational English. It also allows users to learn English in their
native language and currently supports 28 different languages. The app has been
downloaded about 2 million times till date, and is currently being used to
improve spoken English skills by more than 120,000 active users monthly. The
app’s platform is adaptive and gamified with real time assessments, which makes
it easier for not just individuals but also corporates to use it for their
employee training modules.

Arshan
Vakil, Co-Founder and CEO, Kings Learning, said, “Our
goal is to leverage innovative technology and creative content to deliver high
quality and engaging English education to all. We are excited to partner with
our investors as we move into the next phase of our growth which will primarily
be focused on scaling up our offerings like Enguru, strengthening our
technology and analytics engine and expanding the Kings Learning team.”

Prachi
Windlass, Education Director, India, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, said, “English
has become a ticket to enter the booming knowledge-driven job economy of India,
however, few have access to quality English language training. Almost half of
the graduates in India, primarily from underprivileged backgrounds, are
considered unemployable in most of the sectors due to lack of spoken English
skills. Thankfully, mobile internet explosion, supplemented by exemplary work
undertaken by technology-driven organizations like Kings Learning, is helping
address this problem. We are excited to support Kings Learning’s efforts in
their journey ahead.”

ELEVATE 100, the
entrepreneurship platform of the Karnataka government to select 100 innovative
startups, has helped the state to look at innovation happening across the
state, said Minister for IT, BT & Tourism, Priyank Kharge.

Speaking at a media interaction, at the Elevate 100 event, he said
selecting 100 innovative startups out of 1,700 applications was a tedious task.

“We organised three month-long pitching sessions at Mysuru,
Kalaburagi, Mangaluru, Hubballi and Bengaluru. This helped us to narrow down to
300 startups and later select 111 startups for the continuous mentoring
programme and Rs 35 crore grant. We have selected 11 rural and 19 women
entrepreneurs,” Kharge said.

He said the selection process helped the government in
enhancing industry and government collaboration and strengthen innovation
prowess of Karnataka.

“The efforts of Karnataka government doesn’t stop at
elevating the chosen 100. We see ELEVATE 100 as a continuous process where the
best ideas from the state gets the support and guidance they deserve,” he said.

The Karnataka government
has signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with eight technology companies,
including Google and Amazon India, to help startups under its Elevate 100
programme. The state has selected 100 startups under the programme and will
provide them with mentorship and financial support from its Rs 400-crore
startup fund.

Google and Amazon Activate
will provide $3,000 worth of cloud credits for startups registered with the
government's Startup Cell and $20,000 worth of cloud credits to startups who
are winners of Elevate 100. Digital Ocean will provide $100 one-time credit and
a $1,000 one-time credit. Yes Bank, Kotak Bank, and Zoho will help the startups
with banking and accounting services. PwC and Legal Advisors will help them
with consulting services.

Priyank Kharge, IT, BT
& tourism minister, said: “The efforts of the Karnataka government doesn't
stop at elevating the chosen 100. We see Elevate 100 as a continuing process
where the best ideas from the state get the support and guidance they deserve.“

The winners, which were
selected from 1,700 applicants, operate in various sectors.

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

In line with Amazon Care’s vision of transforming
lives, Amazon has partnered with The Akshaya PatraFoundation to reach
out to 1,70,000 children across 1300 schools, contributing to the Government of
Karnataka's flagship ‘Ksheera Bhagya’ Scheme in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
Under the partnership, Amazon will help the Foundation in distributing and
providing a healthy glass of milk to the school children, five days a week to
help them be stronger, sharper and have a great start to their day.

Akshaya Patra, in partnership with the Government
of Karnataka, implements the Ksheera Bhagya Scheme to provide
milk to school andanganwadi children in Karnataka. This scheme
ensures that children start their day in school with a healthy glass of milk,
which is rich in protein and fat, essential for healthy growth and all-round
development of children. This nutritious component also helps in improving their
concentration in school. The partnership between Amazon Cares and Akshaya Patra will
enable Akshaya Patra to implement the Ksheera Bhagya Scheme
to provide milk to school children for five days of the week for this entire
academic year.

Encouraging this partnership, Roshan Baig,
A. Manju and Mehroz Khan expressed their support for
the scheme. They also spoke on the benefits of providing milk to school
children on regular basis. They appreciated Amazon Cares for partnering with Akshaya Patra and
this direction of transforming lives of the underserved children in the
society.

Talking about the partnership, Gopal Pillai,
Director & GM, Seller Services, Amazon India said, “In line with Amazon Care’s vision of
Transforming Lives, we have partnered with the civil society at large to bring
about transformation and betterment of the community. We work in areas of
education, health, livelihoodand sanitation all over the country.
Today, we are delighted topartner with Akshaya Patra and
contribute our bit in the Ksheer Bhagya Scheme, to help in the
milk distribution across 1300 government schools in Bengaluru and ensure that
these children get a healthy glass of milk every morning for their holistic
growth.”

Shridhar Venkat, CEO, The Akshaya Patra Foundation said, “We welcome
Amazon Care’s initiative to support the supply of milk underKsheera Bhagya Scheme
by the Government of Karnataka, which helps the child to start the morning in
schools with a nutritious and healthy drink. With this support, we look forward
to work with the Government of Karnataka in making the child’s morning healthy
and energetic.”

ABB India has surpassed the 5 GW milestone for the supply of solar
inverters in India. From schools to airports, canal tops and mega solar plants,
ABB's solar inverters with global technology made In India power various solar
Installations across the country. As per market reports, India is set to become
the third largest solar market in the world in 2017, expected to touch about 5
percent of the global solar capacity and ABB India is ready to support this
growth.

Azure Power and ABB India's senior leadership were present at an
event to mark the 5GW milestone journey supported by ABB customers in India.
The event took place in ABB solar inverter factory in Bengaluru. Inverters are
the heart of solar installations and ABB pioneered inverter production in the
country in 2012. Last year, ABB India doubled its solar inverter manufacturing
capacity in India. The expansion follows earlier milestones achieved by ABB
India in 2015 – the first company to double the solar inverter installed base
to 2GW in a span of five months. ABB's end to end portfolio for solar energy
including solar inverters, powers about 50 percent of the various solar
projects in the country.

"Azure Power has demonstrated its strong project development,
engineering, and execution capabilities with the support of leading technology
partners such as ABB. Their best in class technology and solutions complement
our strategy of superior operating performance of our long term energy
contracts," said Inderpreet S Wadhwa, Chairman and CEO, Azure Power.

“We would like to thank and acknowledge all our customers and
channel partners for their continued support and commitment to ABB quality and
technology. As India makes rapid strides on its clean energy mission, we are
proud to partner this journey with our best in class, future-proof global
technology made in India,” said Sanjeev Sharma, Managing Director, ABB India.
“Quality products and innovative solutions are key to continue the momentum of
growth of Indian renewable energy installations with digitalization adding the
competitive edge. This makes ABB a natural choice to keep pace with the energy
revolution sweeping the sector,” he added.

An early entrant in the renewable energy landscape, Azure Power is
among the longest tenured utility scale solar power producers in India, with
one of the largest portfolios of operating projects in the country. They
executed India’s first private utility scale solar project in 2009 and the
first megawatt-scale solar rooftop project over a distributed area in 2013.
Azure Power's rooftop solar project portfolio comprises 100 MW across 14 states
in India.

Between April 2016 and March 2017, India witnessed more renewable
energy capacity addition than the thermal counterpart for the first time in
history, data of the Indian Central Electricity Authority (CEA) showed.

ABB is the leading global supplier of solar photovoltaic (PV)
inverters. ABB's solar inverter product portfolio ranges from 2 kW to 2 MW; 2
kW to 120 kW are string inverters optimized for residential rooftop usage and
250 kW to 2 MW central inverters are ideal for cost-efficient multi-megawatt
power plants. The key differentiators of ABB solar inverters are high
reliability, efficiency and ease of installation and maintenance. Plant
management solutions including environmental management, software tools and
lifetime support are also part of the portfolio.

ABB offerings in solar in India: ABB
provides the most comprehensive portfolio of products, systems, solutions and
services along the solar PV value chain that enable the generation,
transmission and distribution of solar power for grid-connected and microgrid
applications. ABB’s offering includes inverters, low-voltage products,
monitoring and control systems, grid connection, stabilization and integration
products, as well as complete electrical balance of plant solutions. ABB also
offers a wide range of support and maintenance services, including remote operations
and diagnostics, helping ensure solar installations deliver optimal
performance.

Royal
Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films, one of the most credible and celebrated
stages for short films in India, announces its association with Jio MAMI with
Star for the second time in a row. Strengthening this partnership and taking
this alliance a notch higher, Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films will
continue to sponsor the Large Short Film category at the 19th season
of this esteemed film festival in Mumbai. The Mumbai Film Festival is the
biggest movie feast in India showcasing the latest cutting-edge, independent
cinema from across the world. The association will help to promote new trends
in the cinema space and also strengthen Large Short Films as a big platform for
short films in India.

True to the platform’s highly acclaimed status in the industry
today, Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films will premier 4 powerful short
films by acclaimed Bollywood directors at the festival this year. Furthermore
these master storytellers will share their ‘pursuit to perfection’ stories over
panel discussions.

Over the last three years, Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short
Films has gained immense popularity and has released some of the most
prodigious and award winning short films with renowned artists and directors
from the industry which truly reflects originality, imagination and perfection.

Speaking about the association, Raja Banerji, Assistant
Vice President, Marketing, Pernod Ricard India, said “We are
extremely delighted to take our association with JIO MAMI to the next level.
Not only are we proud to own the short film category at the festival, we
are also happy to screen 4 short films by renowned directors and 10 short films
by aspiring film makers at the festival making this partnership grander. Our
platform Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films has carved a niche for
itself in the short film industry in India by driving its evolution in the last
few years. It is great to see that not only are short films emerging as
powerful as full feature films attracting great audiences, but are also
attracting great talent from the mainstream film industry. This association is
enormously crucial for the growth of our platform as well as the continued
progression of the short film genre.”

United in their commitment to the short film genre with Jio MAMI
with Star, the platform has created a challenging contest for aspiring
filmmakers across the country. Inspiring them to create original short films
and providing them the right stage to showcase their work, the platform will
screen 10 best short films at the festival. Out of these, one director – the
jury’s favourite will get an opportunity to intern with Vidhu Vinod Chopra. The
contest will be judged by an eminent jury comprising producer and actress,
Srishti Behl Arya, actor Rajkummar Rao and film director and screenwriter Nitya
Mehra.

Smriti Kiran, Creative Director, Jio MAMI Mumbai Film
Festival with Star said, "We are extremely
proud of our partnership with The Royal Stag Barrel Select-Large Short Films.
This is our second year of association. Some of the best content with regard to
short films in India has come out of this platform. They have put short films
on the map by backing the most exciting narratives, filmmakers and discovering
some really unique new voices. Last year the films that screened under this
category were so good that I cannot wait to watch the final ten films that make
it after going through the scrutiny of the stellar LSF Jury this year:
Filmmakers Nitya Mehra, Shrishti Arya and Actor Rajkummar Rao. These are the
films we will screen at the festival this year."

Themed on the philosophy of “Make it
Perfect”, The Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films is a platform for
aspiring directors to feature along with mainstream Bollywood directors while
still chasing their creative energy to create a niche for themselves in the
industry. The platform gives a credible stage to the storytellers to showcase
their artistic creativity and reach out to their target audience through the
digital world.

To inspire young filmmakers to create powerful short films that
will have a profound effect on its audience, we have created a short film
featuring the legendary actor / director Tinu Anand. Conceptualized by River,
an independent creative agency and produced by Early Man production house, the
short film celebrates the power, an original film can hold over its audience
and how it influences people in many ways.

ROHM Semiconductor India
Pvt Ltd (RSI) a subsidiary of ROHM Co. Ltd., Kyoto, has recently announced an
array of power solutions like SiC, IGBT, and gate drivers, for improving the
power conversion efficiency. These products are intended to meet the harsh
condition of India’s rapidly growing power infrastructure.

“Quality is our top
priority at all times” said Daisuke Nakamura, Managing Director of Rohm
Semiconductor India Pvt. Ltd. “It is our company mission which we have
maintained since its establishment in 1958. It is same in India business,
too. We always offer the high quality and reliable solutions and by that,
we also would like to be the best partner of Indian customers. Silicon Carbide
power devices with trench structure that leverage industry-leading technology
is a product which will be able to contribute ‘affordable renewable energy’. It
would help not only the improvement of energy conversion but also the
implementation of smaller and stronger in renewable energy application like a
solar inverter or high input voltage power supply.”

The population increase
due to urbanization, growing manufacturing Industries, India will face a
chronic power shortage. Rural electrification is also attained high priority.
This has driven the demand for solutions that can provide a stable and
distributed energy with minimal resource utilization. This has increased the
demand for power plants based on renewable energy like solar, wind energy,
besides other not so popular biomass, tidal etc. According to the National
Electricity Plan drafted by the Central Electric Authority, the country will
see a rapid increase in non-fossil fuels based renewable energy, like nuclear
or hydro-electric power to 56.5% by 2027. This will serve to decrease the
country’s reliance on fossil fuels while establishing renewable energy as a
viable new source for the future, while clamping on the trade deficit owing to
the import of oil and coal.

RSI, working on the
Gandhian principle of “more from less, for more” to make the energy affordable
to masses. It is working towards maximizing the energy harvested by controlling
the power loss during all the power stages of conversion like conditioning,
inversion etc. This is towards creating more from less, i.e.,
effective utilization of renewable energy. For example, as much as 30% of the
electric energy is lost in the process of generation, transmission and
distribution. This loss along with the loses in power conversion is believed to
exceed 35%. In response, RSI proposes power solutions centered on cutting-edge
SiC power devices that achieve higher efficiency in the power conversion. The
trench SiC-based inverters can reduce power loss by as much as ~2% compared to
the conventional devices like IGBT, Si MOSFET etc., while contributing towards
miniaturization owing to reduced heat dissipation.

The improvement in size
and efficiency owing to the adoption of the power solutions from RSI, like gate
drivers, trench SiC MOSFETs, and IGBTs, play a vital role in enabling small
scale and distributed power plants for tapping solar and wind energy. A ~2%
increase in efficiency along with the reduced cooling requirements can bring in
a considerable cost saving for the end customers, besides improving the
reliability of the power converters. This will help bridge the demand supply
gap, which is “more from less, for more”, thus reaching more
people. The distributed power generation, besides reducing a huge burden on our
grid, reduces the transmission and distribution losses.

Quick local support for designing systems using
technologies is available from experienced Application Engineering team in
Bangalore. RSI’s sales & marketing teams in New Delhi, Pune, Bangalore and
Chennai work closely with customers to ensure support in adopting these
products and reap the rich benefits.

Jivi mobiles has entered the smart phone
market with its new product portfolio of 5 smart phones starting from Rs
3,333 to Rs 6,599 in India. Priced very competitively, every model comes with
double warranty which means the user will get a free replacement and free
screen replacement for 111 days from the date of purchase. Along with
standard accessories, the customers will also get protection gears free of cost
which included Tempered glass, protective case and flip cover.

Under the 111 days replacement warranty, the company is offering
replacement of handset for hardware defect within 111 days from the date of
purchase/activation. There is also free screen (LCD/TP) replacement one time within 111 days from the date of
purchase & activation.

jivi smart phones exhibit great style combined with cutting-edge
technology, the devices aspire to be the ideal companion for people who are
looking for offering seamless and enhanced user experience at an affordable
price.

Talking
about the new range of smart phones, Pankaj Anand, CEO, jivi mobiles said, “We
are extremely happy to launch our smart phone range for our discerning
customers. At jivi, the focus is on providing the best technology at
competitive prices. Our research team has worked tirelessly in making this a
reality. We are one of the very few companies in the country to offer such a
wide range of smart phones at such amazing price points and we are the pioneers
in offering 111 days warranty as well. All our devices and chargers are Bureau of
Indian Standards(BIS) approved. The products
would be ‘Made in India’, in our facility in Delhi. ”

Expressing his elation on the launch of smart phone, Irffan Khan, brand
Ambassador of jivi mobiles said, “I have always known jivi to be an
inspirational brand in India as they have assiduously worked towards achieving
their goal of providing cutting edge technology at best prices to the
customers. The new range of smart phones is a proof of their commitment and 111
days replacement warranty is a never seen before offer. I am very happy to be
associated with jivi mobiles and would love to see through this association for
a long time.”

jivi mobiles has taken a major step in
the direction of realizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Vision of ‘Make in
India’ by setting up two new facilities with an investment of Rs. 200 crores. Jivi
Mobile first factory is in Mahipalpur, New Delhi built up on
an area of 15000 sq. ft. which would cater to North and East India demand of jivi
mobiles phones. Company’s 1st facility in
Mahipalpur has a capacity to roll out 7 lakh phones per month and it employs
some 350 employees in the first phase.

Second facility of jivi mobiles which
is located in Lonavla, Maharashtra to cater to the South and Western parts of
the country, would be operational in the coming months.

Organizations are building and deploying cloud-native applications
across public and private clouds to realize the benefits of scale, flexibility
and agility. As these applications scale, their components are distributed
across multiple heterogeneous clouds, which can also inadvertently distribute
vulnerabilities and increase the risk of a business-impacting security breach.
To further complicate matters, the perimeter of cloud environments is blurred,
rendering perimeter-based policies ineffective in preventing the lateral spread
of threats and creating the need for agile enforcement points that require
up-to-date policies. Security administrators are also burdened with having to
manually create and manage myriad security policies across multiple
environments and do not have clear visibility into how applications interact
with each other. These conditions can lead to applications running in opaque
environments with ineffective security and limited scalability.

Contrail Security enables an innovative response to the heightened risk
brought about by today’s cloud workloads and applications. Practitioners will
have visibility and control with simplified
operations driven by consistent, intent-driven security policies that
seamlessly interoperate with existing security controls and virtual
environments. With Contrail Security, Juniper Networks is transforming the way enterprises and SaaS cloud
providers protect, manage and monitor their cloud-native applications in
heterogeneous environments. Contrail Security combined with the automated
threat detection and enforcement of Juniper’s Software
Defined Secure Networks platform will further
fuel the expansion of a truly unified cybersecurity platform, able to
adaptively respond to any threat.

“Juniper
Networks has a strong history in both network orchestration and security. The
next five years will be critical for companies that are planning to transform
their network infrastructure. Security buyers deploying complex SDN-enabled
networks would be wise to consider vendors with a deep expertise in network
orchestration,” remarks Jeff Wilson, research director and advisor,
Cybersecurity Technology at IHS Markit

“Myriad and our customers are increasingly
relying on both hybrid-cloud and multi-cloud application delivery strategies.
In these environments, it has been nearly impossible for security teams to keep
up. Contrail Security changes that. The combination of intent-driven policy,
consistency across environments, multiple enforcement points, intelligent
machine learning, and intuitive templates and wizards promise to set a new bar
for application security. We believe Contrail Security will prove to
be THE tool for stopping the spread of lateral threats without
compromising scale or performance across hybrid & multi-cloud environments,”
adds Chris Grundemann, principal architect at Myriad Supply.